Author: Rep. Heather Scott

As we get ready for a much-anticipated summer season, I wanted to briefly update you on a few important legislative activities. Remember while you are off enjoying the Idaho outdoors, government is always active and rarely sleeps.

The 2017 session is now in the books and most of the new legislation will take effect on July 1st. With 339 bills and an additional 1,416 pages of rules and regulations becoming law, you can bet every resident of Idaho will be impacted by one or more of these laws.

The 2017 session proved to be what I believe is the beginning of real change in the Idaho legislature as debates and conversations are starting to shift in the right direction. More legislators are beginning to question the agendas and motives behind bills and policy in an attempt to expose top down centralized planning and crony capitalism at the expense of the citizen.

As the tentative March 24th session deadline drew closer, there was an urgency to “get done and go home”. This reckless pace of Pelosi-style “pass-it-to-find-out what’s-in-it” style of legislating is counter productive to what Idaho really needs and justification for a major overhaul of the committee system.

Idahoans deserve quality legislation. Because of this, a group of liberty legislators took the initiative to actually have a few bills read out loud for the entire House.

Monday kicked off with Governor Otter delivering the annual State of the State address. Idaho’s future is looking bright as it is going into its seventh straight year of economic growth. The 2017 fiscal year will finish with around $130 million in surplus revenue! The $130 million in tax revenues could be used to increase government spending, reduce tax burdens on Idahoans, or a combination of both.

Career politicians and long-term state legislators did not like the outcome of a vote on House Bill #100 (a victory for the people), so they called the bill to the floor again for a re-vote via House Rule 40.

Highlights:

Rep. Mike Moyle takes over the Speaker’s position so the speaker can argue against the bill.